ABOUT CHRIS
CHRIS HARRIS is the author of the number-one-except-for-two-other-books New York Times-bestselling children’s book I’M JUST NO GOOD AT RHYMING, lauded by Publisher’s Weekly as “a worthy heir to Silverstein, Seuss and even Ogden Nash.” His follow-up, THE ALPHABET’S ALPHABET, illustrated by Dan Santat and praised by Kirkus as “a sure-fire winner,” was released in September, 2020.
Chris lives in Los Angeles with his wife Hilary, two children, and a dog who purrs like a cat. He loves solving puzzles, playing games, and eating hoards of peppermint stick ice cream. In his spare time, he gets older. If you ever meet Chris, ask him the question “Shneeple?” while pulling your ear, and he promises that he will respond by saying, “Shnomple!” while hitting himself on the forehead. (It’s like you’ll be members of a secret club!).
Chris has also spent over twenty years in television, most of it hovering around the snack table. Among his credits are writer/executive producer for HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, executive producer/showrunner for THE GOODWIN GAMES and THE GREAT INDOORS, and writer for THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN. His written pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, ESPN, and on one of those shows on NPR – probably All Things Considered, but it’s been a while so he’s not 100% certain.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: How old are you?
A: Wow. Who’s asking me that? Let’s just say that if I were still in school, I’d be in 44th grade.
Q: Did you read a lot when you were growing up?
A: I did. Everything. From comic books to novels to cereal boxes to my older brother’s private journal. I especially loved books that surprised me or made me think about things in ways I’d never thought of before—The Phantom Tollbooth, Lewis Carroll, Shel Silverstein, The Westing Game, Susan Cooper, Remy Charlip, Roald Dahl…
Q: Why did you start writing poems?
A: When I had kids of my own, I wanted to create something for them. I couldn’t build them a tree house because hammers scare me. I couldn’t paint them a mural since I have the artistic instincts of a tractor. I couldn’t write a novel because my brain was too exhausted from raising two young kids. But I could write… poetry! I’ve always remembered how much I loved the rhythm and rhymes of poems when I was younger (Shel Silverstein, A. A. Milne, Dr. Seuss). And as I wrote my own, I found it was a great way to share a laugh with my kids, to let them know I understood how they felt in their sad moments, and simply to show them all the things a person can do with words and letters, with a little imagination.
Q: Where do you get your ideas from?
A: Just about every single thing I’ve written starts with something real—something that actually happened to me or my family, or an emotion that I felt, or a question I had… I think about that something real for a while, and then I add my imagination to it—I use a “WHAT IF?” to make it extra-fun or special. For example, one morning when my daughter Jozy was two, I was trying to get her to eat her breakfast, and I resorted to that tired old parental cliché, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Without missing a beat, she looked up at me with a very serious expression and said, “That’s not very nice to lunch.” That moment made me laugh, so I remembered it, and wrote it down, and thought “WHAT IF… someone’s lunch actually heard a person say that about breakfast, and it really hurt that lunch’s feelings?” And that became part of my first book—a very short poem with the very long title “JUST BECAUSE I’M A TURKEY SANDWICH AND SOME CHIPS DOESN’T MEAN I DON’T HAVE FEELINGS TOO, YOU KNOW!” (Not to be confused with the poem of the same title by Lord Byron.) This idea—taking real moments from our own lives and adding what-ifs to them—is one of my favorite things to talk about with kids when I do school visits.
Q: Soooooo… you do school visits?
A: I answer that question here.
A: Sometimes.
Q: Do you ever answer a question before someone even asks it?
Q: Do you have a favorite poem that you wrote?
A: Yes, but it changes depending on my mood.
Q: Do you have a least favorite poem that you wrote?
A: Totally. “Roller Coaster + Earthquake”. It’s super-meh.
Q: What’s for dinner tonight?
A: I don’t know, maybe something simple? Ah, forget it, let’s just order in again.
INFREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: Why do sharks taste like peanut butter?
A: That’s a very strange question. I’m not sure why you’re asking me that.
Q: How many opinions can juggle tennis shoes inside a whisper?
A: That’s a very strange question. I’m not sure why you’re asking me that.
Q: Canaries?!
A: That’s a very strange question. I’m not sure why you’re asking me that.
Q: When can seems your however doesn’t happy if peppermint?
A: That’s a very strange question. I’m not sure why you’re asking me that.